Hermione's Diary
by Wingardium5
Summary: Hermione starts to write a diary. Set at the start of her sixth year  Half Blood Prince , and keeping loosely to the plot. She focuses on how she controls her feelings for Ron and the pressure to do well whilst sticking by Harry.
1. A Fresh Year

**Sunday September 1st – A fresh year!**

**This diary writing thing is going to take some getting used to, but I suppose it's a good idea. The train ride today was pretty uneventful. I passed the time thinking about my targets and resolutions for this year. I suppose I better write them down, otherwise I'll just forget and break them in an instant.**

**Number 1: Study harder than ever. I need to get good NEWTs and I'm not going to get them if I continue at the rate I was going at last year.**

**Number 2: Stop being so concerned about my physical appearance. Ron doesn't care if my hair is bushy and I'm not wearing makeup. Well, that's what I'm going to tell myself.**

**Number 3: Keep temper under control. It won't resolve anything. I've got to keep a cooler head. Something tells me this one is going to be the hardest to live up to.**

**I'm sure these will get me through the year, if I can just keep them! I can't wait for the start of lessons tomorrow. I just hope I can keep up. I've been reading NEWT textbooks for over a year now, but probably in nowhere near as much detail as is really needed. Oh god, I've got a lot of work to do this year.**


	2. NEWTs and wanting a time turner again

**Monday September 2****nd**** – NEWTs, piles of books and wishing I had a time turner again.**

**I was right about putting in extra work. Even though I enjoyed the lessons today I haven't quite got my head around how much work I'm expected to do. My favourite lesson today was of double Arithmancy. Arithmancy is such a fascinating subject, and now only three pupils in the whole of the sixth year have chosen to take it to NEWT level - just me and two Ravenclaws. That means we all get extra attention from the teacher and I can ask questions without getting snickered at from the rest of the class. That used to bother me, but now I can usually just accept it. **

**Harry and Ron's faces when Professor Snape strutted in and announced that he was going to be our Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher were almost comical. Besides, it's Harry's best subject and he could really do with someone teaching him who he at least has a tiny bit of respect for. I've got to say I'm not too pleased about that either. DefenceAagainst the Dark Arts is the only subject I got an E for in my OWLs and I could really use some extra tuition. Ron says he would not like to be in my shoes walking into Snape's office and asking for extra lessons. I can really see his point. I might ask Harry to help me with the practical work, after the amazing success that was the DA. Talking of the DA, I only saw Luna briefly today, but she and Neville seem so keen to try and carry it on this year. That will be hard, and Harry has things he should be focusing on. I just tried to tell him that, but Ron accused me of nagging. He does that a lot, but the problem is I'm not quite sure how NOT to nag.**

**The problem with writing a diary is people (in this case, Harry, Ron and Ginny) looking over your shoulder and asking you why you appear to be writing a novel even after you've finished the 3 essays you got set today. Ginny's suspicious look made me wonder if she is still wary of diary writing, but if she asks I can assure her that I bought this diary from a stationary shop in muggle London and am certain it contains no connections to dark magic. Harry's suspicious look made me wonder if he thinks I'm coming up with some master plan to keep he and Ron on track with their studying (not a bad idea, even though last year's 'master plan' didn't go down quite as well as intended). Ron's suspicious look makes me take a mental note to write future diary entries upstairs in the privacy of my dormitory to avoid anything being read that really, really shouldn't be read.**


	3. Essays and the joys of quidditch

**Friday September 6****th**** – Essays, essays, essays and the joys of quidditch.**

**Wow, I've been so busy this week that I haven't written anything since Monday. Everything is getting hectic, what with new classes and teachers. I've finished all my essays from this week (I've finished more than Harry and Ron put together). Of course they're distracted because the quidditch trials are tomorrow. I've gathered that Ron is trying for Gryffindor keeper, but he didn't tell Harry until Harry caught him leaving the common room with his broom to go and practice. Quidditch just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. The only reason I ever watch the matches is to see Harry play and to keep with the whole Gryffindor spirit thing. Harry and Ron always start these long conversations about their team's tactics for this season or something else unbearably pointless. I just tune out on them.**

**Oh god, I'm ranting. That should have been one of my resolutions. Stop ranting, even when I'm just ranting to myself. Unfortunately the whole resolution thing has half gone down the drain already, not even a week into term. I've already broken 2 of my resolutions: number 2, 'stop being so concerned about my physical appearance' was broken when I decided not to do anything fancy with my hair and leave it in its usual dragged through a bush backwards look. I was halfway down the staircase when I decided that I couldn't go to breakfast with my hair loose and spent a further 5 minutes styling it before I realised that I've already broken my first resolution. Oh dear. The third resolution, 'keep my temper under control' has been broken at least 5 times since my last diary entry. I can't help it, I just flare up. Harry has decided to keep the second hand potions book that he borrowed from Professor Slughorn because it has some stupid notes in it that he tells me helped him loads in potions today and earned him brownie points with Professor Slughorn. I asked him how he thinks that's fair, if he's following a different recipe to everyone else. Of course Ron piped up with one of his usual 'oh lay off it Hermione' comments and I snapped. Seriously though, he can be annoying and say stupid things but somewhere inside me I just really, really like him. Is he ever going to 'like' me if I'm always ranting off at him? Unlikely. Tomorrow I'll begin attempt 2 at the 'keep temper under control' resolution, and the optimist inside me says that I won't fail.**


End file.
